Wednesday, March 21, 2012
sleep....i need it, and your thoughts
Little one is STILL waking up every 3 hrs at night. If I'm lucky she'll give me five straight. But not every night and not very often. She's 12 weeks and it's no secret she can stand to go 8 hrs at night without food. She's a CHUNK! Which I love, but I'm not loving my 3 hr stretches at night. I've read a few different books about sleep training, but I want to know YOUR thoughts and ideas. I'm still trying to find what will work for us, but I need more ideas to go from. so PLEASE share :)
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I highly recommend The Baby Whisperer Solves All Your Problems by Tracy Hogg. It is basically a middle ground between the "cry it out" method and co-sleeping. It teaches you how to teach your child to go to sleep on their own, so that if they wake up in the middle of the night they can get themselves back to sleep. Also, if your child is waking up at the same times every night it means they are waking up out of habit. This book teaches you how to break that habit. It's a long book but you can get away with only reading the parts that pertain to your baby's age. If you have any questions, feel free to ask!
ReplyDeleteWe were lucky. Claire was always a good sleeper. She was sleeping through the night by 2 months. The thing that helped us was training her to fall asleep on her own. I would go lay her down in her crib (still awake) and she would cry for a while, so I would just go in there every few minutes and rub my hand on her tummy or her head so that she knew I was there, but that she needed to go to sleep. Eventually, if she cried for more than like 15 minutes, I would go in and get her and then she would eventually fall asleep in my arms. You just keep doing it until finally, they learn that you are there, you're not abandoning them and they can fall asleep on their own. It might take a week or more, but it is worth it in the end!
ReplyDeleteHealthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child by Marc Weissbluth is another good book.
ReplyDeleteDoes she sleep in your room with you? If so, move her out and into a room you are only going to hear her if she really starts crying. I had my baby in my room with me and she would wake up at least every three hours too. At 5 months I just had to start sleeping more so I moved her out so I couldn't hear her when she would start to wake up. She slept through the night from the first night I moved her out! I couldn't believe it. Don't use a baby monitor either if it's going to wake you up with every sound she makes. Babies have natural sleep and wake patterns at night just like we do and it doesn't mean their hungry. Good luck!
Do what feels right to you? 3 hour stretches are pretty good compared to some babies (I'm not complaining about my current one ... maybe his predecessor though). I had a hard time figuring out what to do with Lincoln and what I learned was ... nothing. Not about sleep tips anyway. I did learn that, 'this too shall pass.' But more importantly be wary of advice and only do what you and Seth feel good about inside. Good luck.
ReplyDeleteI don't know if this would help or not- but I struggled with my first and it wasn't until I gave her a full 8 oz bottle (at 6 weeks) before bed, that she started sleeping through the night. I guess by the end of the day, my milk supply was lower. So tanking her up before bedtime was the trick. Hope that helps?!?!!
ReplyDeleteMy boys were the same way! Every three hours they would eat, what I started to do was lower the amount I would feed them at night, I would pump and feed them only 2 oz instead of the usuall 4 then after a week of that they stopped waking up for the midnight feeding!
ReplyDeleteI wish I had some advice, but I'm pretty much in the same boat! I've had one good sleeper and two not-so-good sleepers. Good luck!!!
ReplyDeleteI haven't had any luck with any sleep books. I say develop your own rhythm and ideas. No one in a book knows YOU and YOUR baby and what you're willing to do and what you aren't. Best of luck. My kids are big eaters too.
ReplyDeleteI know you posted this a long time ago so you may have solved your problem. Our little guy used to sleep through the night great, but recently he's been waking up in the middle of the night and I know it's not because he needs to eat. So I was looking around and found something called the Sleep Sense Program. You can check it out at http://www.sleepsense.net/. I haven't used it, but it sounds great. I thought I'd let you know about it in case you're still trying to find some answers! It may work for you!
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